Adobe’s professional photo editing software Lightroom has finally made its way to iOS devices with Adobe’s new Lightroom mobile app for the iPad, allowing photographers who use the desktop version of Lightroom to edit and organize photos from anywhere.Lightroom mobile is not a standalone app, requiring both a subscription to Adobe’s Creative Cloud and Lightroom 5 to function.

Integrating seamlessly with the full version of Lightroom 5 for PCs and Macs, Lightroom mobile allows users to log in to the app with an Adobe ID to access the library of content stored in a desktop version of Lightroom. The app downloads Smart Previews of files from the desktop app, allowing for very fast content transfers between the desktop and the mobile app.

The new Lightroom mobile app brings powerful Lightroom tools to the iPad, delivering photography essentials – such as non-destructive processing of files – and utilizing new Smart Preview technologies to free professional-class photo editing from the confines of the desktop. Lightroom mobile is built on a powerful synchronization architecture, designed specifically for photos, and provides the most efficient way to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web.

Smart Previews do require an ongoing Internet connection to sync back and forth between Adobe’s servers to prevent iPad users from having to download huge files, but files can also be downloaded in full for offline editing if preferred.